April Birthdays 
If anybody ever asks you for the definition of traditional surf music, just play them the new album by Surfer Joe (AKA Lorenzo Valdambrini), "Swell of Dwell". This album is a love-letter to surf music by probably its greatest fan of the 21st century, the man who has single-handedly built thee biggest surf music festival in the world in the unlikely Ligurian port town of Livorno, Italy, bringing in not only surf bands but also surf fans from every corner of the world for over 10 years now. It's an astonishing achievement, but then, astonishing achievements are routine for Lorenzo. A successful entrepreneur with an expanding chain of Surfer Joe diners, he's also turned himself (fairly late in the game by most people's standards) into a truly excellent surf guitarist, bassist and songwriter, despite starting off as surf drummer (and a really great drummer at that!) - I don't know many or even any to have accomplished such a thing! He also tours extensively around the world, while running multiple businesses!
There really appears to be nothing that Lorenzo cannot do once he sets his mind to it. And that goes for this album, too - Lorenzo's second full-length album under the Surfer Joe name ("Señor Surf" from 2013 being the first, though he's released a bunch of singles, EPs and collaborations in the meantime). It is a self-consciously super-traditional surf music album, and for me, along with Satan's Pilgrims "Siniestro", the best such album in years. Listening to it made me feel like hearing one of those '80s/'90s bootleg compilation LPs of long-lost surf obscuros, "Diggin' Out", "Surfer's Mood", "Surf Creature", "Wail on the Beach", etc. "Swell of Dwell" owes a huge debt to the hundreds of the early-sixties Southern California teenage surf bands, most of whose legacy consisted of a lone 45 but who still somehow managed to capture something special in that 2-minutes-per-side. Lorenzo's encyclopedic knowledge of all those songs and his deep love for them comes through in every track on this great album. Full of atmosphere and surprises, just as those albums this one transports me to another place and time, the idealized and romanticized version of a long-gone SoCal.
Lorenzo plays all the instruments on here, and no surprise, everything is dead-on, every instrument absolutely authentic sounding, right out of '63. As I mentioned above, he's already highly renowned as a surf drummer par excellence, but now increasingly as a surf guitarist as well. His playing is simply fantastic here, he's got the perfect touch for traditional surf lead guitar, and knows how to dial in the perfect tone through his highly authentic gear - a Fender Jazzmaster into a vintage Fender Reverb Unit and a brownface Fender Dual Showman. What often goes ignored is Lorenzo's deeply impressive bass playing on pretty much every track on this album. I noticed that from the first time I heard one of his first Surfer Joe tracks, "The North Swell", and his bass playing on this album continues to leave a great impression!
Though there are a few happy-sounding songs, ("A Day At the Beach" in particular is a gem, ending with a brief quote from the Ventures version of "Perfidia"), most of the album is on the moody side, such as my two favorite tracks: the huge, mean album opener "Roller Coaster", and "Difficult Choice", with a deep, syncopated groove and a super-cool, exotic-flavored bridge. One interesting thing about Lorenzo's songwriting and playing style is that he is one of the only modern surf musicians out there that is adept at adding a bit of a bluesy twist to his songs, making them sound very authentic to what bands like the Lively Ones or the Sentinals often did back in the day, but without making them sound like blues. Here I'm thinking of in particular "Roller Coaster" and "Pipelines", another standout track with its up-tempo "Tequila "-styled groove and a pure surf double-picked melody over it. There are also little references to surf classics here and there, such as the short bit of "Midnight Run" in the bridge of the album-closing "Surf Side of the Showman", or even nods to more modern surf, such as the Boss-Martians-sounding (with a touch of the Bambi Molesters and the Kilaueas) "Make it Quick". Lorenzo also completely nails the eleki guitar sound and style of Tekashi Terauchi on "Hiroshi No Subarashi Ramen".
I am proud to say that I contributed the title of one song on this album - "Ampullae of Lorenzini". It's a real thing that I came across while watching "Shark Week" on Discovery Channel a couple of years ago (look it up). And it's such a cool song, with a dark-sounding descending melody going into a truly fantastic bridge. But then, every one of the 10 songs on this fantastic album is full of cool stuff! Get it for yourself and prepare to fall in love with traditional surf music all over again! Great job, Lorenzo!
Ivan
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